Hello! As you may have guessed from the name of this blog, my name is Liz and I am fascinated by song lyrics. I hope you enjoy my waxing lyrical about lyrics and about music generally. I also review albums and gigs and have interviewed several wonderful musicians. Enjoy!

Friday, 7 December 2012

Angels

Hello everyone!

It is Friday - it often seems to be a Friday when I write on this blog - and I am home from University for the weekend. It's nice to be home ♥

I love Uni but there is nothing like being with your family and your cat and sleeping in your own bed and watching Christmas songs on the telly together.

I have been planning for a while to do a post about angel songs - in fact, the seeds of this idea were first sown in my mind as I finished my last blog post about Eurythmics as I remembered their song "There Must Be an Angel," and it reminded me of other angel songs that I like.

I here present to you three angel songs which happen to be from three different decades. They are all very special to me.

♥

Firstly; There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart). I had heard it before but sort of rediscovered it when it was featured on Dancing On Ice (a British TV show in which celebrities compete in the art of figure skating. I watch it on occasion). Here it is:

I hadn't thought I had seen the video; however watching it it seems very familiar, so I must have done. Or maybe I saw it in a previous life.

I like this song: really nice beat as always with Eurythmics, and Annie Lennox's voice is as beautiful as ever, and I was pleasantly surprised at how high she is able to sing in parts of this song - she has an amazing range. Overall a lovely song, and one where you feel safe in the strong, steady beat. A great and classic number.

♥

That song reminded me of "Heaven Must be Missing an Angel" by the Tavares. I was delighted when I found out that this song was by them - I have loved their song "More Than A Woman" for many years.

Right from the opening chimes you know this will be a great song, and again, that beat... this is such a beautifully produced song, and they move so well too! I always want to get up and dance and sing along when I hear this.

Although I have loved and appreciated their music for many years, I have never known much about the Tavares so I looked them up just now and discovered that: (1) they are brothers, (2) Tavares is their surname - somehow it never occurred to me this might be why they were called the Tavares, (3) they are still performing to this day and (4) More Than a Woman is originally a Bee Gees song from Saturday Night Fever. Now that's something I never knew.

I've just listened to the Bee Gees' version of More Than A Woman and I like it but I think I prefer the Tavares one.

This song was also sung by John Farnham and I was always curious as to who wrote it - it didn't sound to me like a Nanci-written song. Now Wikipedia is telling me that Angels was written by Tom Kimmel and Jennifer Kimball. If so,well done them - this is a beautiful song.

And well done to whoever made this video; it is really pretty. Also, the angel at 1.35 reminds me of Aliona Vilani!

I find this song quite different to other material of Nanci's, and I love hearing her voice interpreting someone else's song, and a more pop-based song than her usual country style. Don't get me wrong, I adore her country songs, but it's nice to hear her try something a bit different.

It was probably a bit of a risk. But I think the risk paid off - this song is so beautiful and is one of my favourite Nanci songs. I am sad that I only discovered it maybe a year ago (considering it was released in 2004).

The instrumental is particularly lovely. And the lyrics are gorgeous and rather reassuring, I think:

"We're lifted up by angels,

Higher than the world,

Strong enough to leave it, bound to learn the secret; angels never hurt."

To me, "angels never hurt" can be interpreted as meaning that dying doesn't hurt; that leaving this world doesn't hurt, it isn't painful, and once we learn that, the angel's secret, we can stop being afraid of dying. And I find that idea quite reassuring. This is a gorgeous song, so thank you to the songwriters and thank you to Nanci.

♥

I hope you enjoyed my selection of angel songs. I am aware that there are other songs about angels - Robbie Williams springs to mind - but I think I'll stick with these three as they are songs that mean something to me personally and which I wanted to share with you.

I think they explore - and celebrate - the concept of angels. The first song sees them as a divine presence that can make you fall in love; the second talks about a lover so amazing she must be an angel; the third describes angels as guardians who guide and look after you during life and death.

Personally I believe that everybody has it in them to be an angel and to do something special for someone else; to be there for them when they need an angel or a miracle.

About Me

Hi! I'm Liz.
I'm a fourth-year student of French and Spanish at the University of Manchester. I spent a year teaching English in France and studying in Spain. I've also studied in China.
I am Fiction Editor at Miracle Magazine and I write for The Mancunion, Cuckoo Review, The Cadaverine and Third Year Abroad. I love languages, music, photography, film making, stargazing and cats.